From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? #544505-01178

From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? #544505-01178

June 9, 2010 9:42am

Submission Number:

544505-01178

Commenter:

Knotts

State:

Texas

Initiative Name:

From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?

Re: Notice of Public Workshop and Request for Comments I strongly oppose the FTC attempt to better-support and lower the costs of journalism or the “Reinvention of Journalism. ” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a 47-page bureaucratic plan for the “Reinvention of Journalism” that outlines a series of taxes that would stifle free speech and silence conservatives. The report contains the word “tax” 95 times and is part of “an extensive attempt by the Obama Administration to seize control of the press.” And the conservative media are directly in the crosshairs of the Obama team. The FTC paper includes… * A “Drudge Tax” on news aggregators like The Drudge Report who stand on the front lines of the struggle to expose the Leftist agenda. * A “journalism division” of AmeriCorps -- forcing taxpayers to pay the Obama Administration to train up the next generation of liberal journalists! * A direct Journalism Bailout fund to “help pay the salary of every journalist” -- YOU AND I will be forced to fund the liberal media! * A 5% tax on consumer electronics (like the iPad) * Possible taxes on cell phones, television and radio that would all be part of a massive $35 billion “Citizenship Media Fund” This new FTC document combined with the FCC’s moves to impose a “Fairness Doctrine” pose an ominous threat to conservative speech that would empower the Obama administration to control the dissemination of information while imposing punitive taxes on ideological opponents. We simply must respond and say “NO!” to Obama’s efforts to censor, regulate, tax and control our free speech! Next week, the FTC will be holding a workshop on the “Future of Journalism” as a follow up to the release of its 47-page “Drudge Tax” proposal. I oppose this effort to control conservative speech. I am in unequivocal opposition to "any and all efforts to censor, limit, or restrain free speech -- on conservative or Christian talk radio, on the internet or anywhere else.” The FTC must know that I oppose your “Reinventing Journalism” document, policy and attempts and this effort to censor and tax conservative speech and our free speech rights in general.